Not even trickle of Canadian Anglicans to Catholicism

Many Canadian Catholics have been enthusiastic in recent years that dissident Anglicans, who have been feuding with liberals for years over homosexual blessings and priests, will find their way to the Catholic church as a theological safe haven.

But it just isn’t happening, according to an article in The Catholic Register.

The Register article, headlined “Hopes fade for Anglican ordinariate,” says there has been a serious decline in recent years in the number of Anglicans talking about finding a place in the Catholic church. The drop-off in interest among Anglicans occurred just after the pope, amid some controversy, made it possible two years ago.

Go here for the full article on this unusual situation, by veteran writer Michael Swan.

If you are one of the many people unfamiliar with the term, “ordinariate,” here is the beginning of the Wikipedia definition:

A personal ordinariate is a canonical structure within the Catholic Church enabling former Anglicans to maintain some degree of corporate identity and autonomy with regard to the bishops of the geographical dioceses of the Catholic Church and to preserve elements of their distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony…

The new structure is intended to integrate these groups into the life of the Roman Catholic Church in such a way as “to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared”.[3]